Brief Description of the Prior Art
The electronic reading of product bar codes and the like for purposes of product identification, inventory control and pricing is now utilized in almost all major supermarkets and other merchandising facilities. On occasion, it is desirable to change the product bar code on a particular container in some way. For example, according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,284, it is desirable to make a change in the label at the time that a bar code is being read during the inventorying of a particular product. This change of the label is accomplished by the use of an ultraviolet sensitive dye material which undergoes a color change upon being exposed to ultraviolet radiation. A flasher is provided and operates synchronously with the bar code electronic reader to develop and propogate ultraviolet radiation and thus change the color of the dye. In this way, the label on the bottle is marked, as it passes by the electronic scanner normally used to read the bar code, so that that particular bottle carrying that label will thereafter be recognizable as one which has passed through the scanning station previously. This is an important aspect of the inventory control procedure described in this patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,462 proposes to change the character of the bar code by changing the light emitting properties in selected areas of the bar code. This is accomplished as a result of selective localized radiation with heat or light, and can be used for price change purposes or the like. This procedure is also advocated for use in placing alphanumeric or bar encoded information on a document so that the information can be subsequently detected by an optical reader.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,711,683 envisions changing the bar code on a container by the use of an overlay so that re-price marking can be accomplished when the bar code is thus changed.
None of the systems disclosed in the mentioned patents contemplates a control method which facilitates the refilling of a container on multiple occasions, with the customer paying for the container only on the first sale occasion, which control method contemplates subjecting the container to a machine which can read a bar code or other indicia on the label on the container label (i.e., the first sale). It is desirable that a system be provided which, without the checker, cashier or clerk being required to question the customer, or in some other awkward or difficult way, checking the fact of the refill, can use the electronic scanner normally used to read the bar code to make the proper evaluation of the transaction as being an original container-plus product transaction, or, in the alternative, a subsequent refill product-only transaction.